Addicted
to Love
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Addicted to Love Psychological Thriller Grabs YA Readers
Gilbert, AZ, April, 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Out Now! Addicted to Love, a YA novel thriller, serves up a suspenseful psychological twist. Debut author Kathleen Murray delivers a compelling, realistic portrait of the confusion and pain generated by an imbedded family system of dysfunction thriving during an American period of upheaval, the 1970s. Filled with rich characters and memorable references to a bygone era focused on civil and women’s rights, the story challenges the issue of the lack of protections and safety for children of abuse.
The reader first meets Sally Smithfield as she struggles to reconcile her Catholic grade school’s teachings of God’s love and forgiveness to the daily turbulence of her home located in Chicago’s North Shore. Fighting to survive the after-effects of childhood trauma, Sally attempts to escape her closed-off world in the arms of her high school’s football star with disastrous results. Her unplanned pregnancy shatters Sally’s world even as it divides those she loves; eventually changing all their lives forever. The birth of the baby ignites a cascade of events which culminates in the violent death of her boyfriend. After a family member is convicted of the murder, Sally and her mother flee across the county to build a new life. But the peaceful refuge promised by this new life is crushed by the mother’s collapse and the revelation of a final devastating family secret. This engaging story of courage and determination follows Sally’s travels from Northfield, IL across the US to St. Louis, MO and later to Scottsdale, AZ. Thoughtfully written and emotionally complex, the novel is an intensely moving account concerning family secrets, love, and loss and appeals to readers who seek a gripping story of forgiveness and redemption.
The author proudly grew up in the North Shore and now makes her home in Arizona. “Sally’s fictional story is set in a place and time that I love,” notes Kathleen. “Unfortunately, child abuse exists in every part of the United States so writing this challenged me to imagine the fate of a child who could have been my next door neighbor. Additionally, the story takes place during a decade focused on expanding civil and women’s rights, yet children’s protections against abuse were almost non-existent with very few abusers being held accountable in any way.”
“Sally’s years of abuse compromise her ability towards freeing herself from her abuser. Instead she continues to seek love and acceptance as is the case in most childhood abuse cases. I deliberately tried for a memoir feel to Sally’s story so that those who understand the profile of a victim will recognize and relate personally to Sally’s maladaptive coping mechanisms of dissociation, co-dependence, and flat affect or emotional regulation,” said Kathleen. “It is only recently that the lifelong effects of chronic childhood trauma have been recognized and effective treatments developed. Her story is one that haunts and disturbs as the story of any abuse should.”
The novel delivers the perfect summer read and is available as both as a paperback and wherever eBooks are sold.